T is for Tree

For this week's letter I have used a tree stamp from Crafty Individuals. The background was painted first using my old watercolours. The tree was then stamped over the colour wash in black impress. The hedge at the bottom was stamped using the tips of the branches down the edge of the tree.








The chipboard T was coloured using colour box chalk inks and then triple embossed with clear ep. A tiny bit of orange glitter was dropped onto the hot ep and then on the final heating I dropped some metal leaves into the ep. The leaves were punched out of a coke can that I had annealed in the flames of my gas hob. A little bit of fun recycling going on there!

enjoy!
Sue
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Forever Friends!

It's Wendy's turn to set the challenge this week and I'm not at home! If you read this at the correct time it means I've managed to find an internet cafe in Turkey! I'm writing my blog posts before I go and saving them as drafts so that I can publish them when I am on holiday. From my experience last year I couldn't read the Greek blogger so I thought if I was a little organised before I go, I would just need to click on the orange button to post....I hope it works!

After everything that has been going on over the last couple of months I am now a little behind with the teasers and I have to admit that this is one I did earlier, quite a bit earlier. The card uses one of my fav PSX stamps and is coloured with pearlised watercolours from the Works.

The saying just reminded my that my mum introduced me to her "old friend" the other day and the emphasis was very much on the old. I said that she must be a very good friend, not realising that the lady was actually 92....she didn't look a day over 60! She sounds like a truly amazing woman, having survived the Holocaust and getting a Phd in Physics, in those days women didn't ususally get to study Physics! Truly a remarkable lady!

I hope to catch up with you all when I get back from my Hols!
Sue
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And So We Come to S is for Spider

When I first saw the stamps by Lavinia, at the NEC back in November of last year, I fell in love with them and you can be sure that I will be collecting them in the future.

For my S is for Spider atc I have used the tiny slender mushrooms and the weeping willow leaves from Lavinia stamped in Stampin' Up basic grey. The grasses are from Sir Stamp-a-Lot and the spider is a little custom stamp from Andrew at Tanda. The image has been coloured using copic markers. The chipboard S was coloured with colourbox chalk ink and triple embossed with a tiny bit of glitter.

The set is coming together well now and I'm really pleased with how it's looking. Here's the set so far......




Enjoy!
Sue
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Tanda Teaser - Here Come the Celts!

I've had a set of Tanda Celtic stamps for some time now that I hadn't used, so I thought I should finally christen them! Consequently I have set the challenge, this week, to use a Celtic design or motive somewhere on your card. My card is based on the sketch from the July edition of Craft Stamper. I thought that the circles could be celtic shields and hence the starting point for my card.

The main circle was embossed in clear ep on olive green pearlised card, I then brushed over the image with gold interference paint so that the ep acted as a resist, this was then layered up with bronze metalic card and gold card cut using nesties. The two smaller circles where again cut out with nesties, but this time I used a brass stencil in my wizard to emboss a celtic design on to the bronze card. These circles where then punched and held together with a brassy brad to look like the centre of a shield.

The base of the card consists of a square of olive green pearlised card that I stamped with versamark and then dusted with gold Pearl-Ex. The quote was something I found somewhere on the internet. I think the words fit the celtic theme beautifully as many of the celtic knot designs have no beginning and no end.

I hope you all enjoy the challenge!

Sue
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R is for Rabbit

Can you believe it, another week has gone by already! We are now up to the letter R in Linda's alphabet challenge, so I couldn't resist using my rabbit stamp from my Tanda Baby and Toddler set.

The rabbit and atc background have been coloured using Copic markers. The chipboard R has been coloured and stamped using colourbox chalk inks and then triple embossed with clear ep. The edge of the atc was distressed using colourbox chalk inks too.

Enjoy
Sue
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Easy Elegance!

Hello again, I just got back from Mum's, Dad is doing well! The Doctors are very pleased about how the remaining kidney is coping with working alone which is good news. When I phoned this morning she said that he was being allowed home today. The only problem is that the Hospital have lost his hearing aid and his glasses, so he is not a happy camper! I'm just hoping that they can be found as it took 2 years to get him the hearing aid and he is rather fed up with not being able to see very well!

Well onto happier things, Wendy has posted this week's Tanda Teaser. The Teaser is called Easy Elegance, this made me think of an elegant lady stamp to be found on Tanda's retro ladies set 2. My card was stamped in fawn impress and heat embossed with clear before being water coloured using the Works pearlised watercolours and H2O's. The image was layered with gold card and SU card cut out with nestability dies.

Q is for Queen!

Well, what can I say, having done a playing card K is for King, I had to do a playing card Q is for Queen! The Queen stamp was custom made by Andrew at Tanda...the hearts, she had to be the Queen of Hearts, are from my Tanda baby set. The image was stamped and heat embossed with silver ep then coloured with H2O's. The Q was coloured with colourbox chalk inks and triple embossed with some glitter sprinkled on at the last moment. A bit of Krylon pen was used to do the edges just to finish it off.

Probably a bit too PINK for you Linda! Must introduce the boys (haven't decided which set of nephews are going to get this yet) to their feminine side. Have concerns already about my brother's eldest, Oliver...My brother just sent over a picture of Oliver helping him to make window jams....little does Oliver know that these are designed to stop him climbing out of the windows...as per his cousin (my youngest) who was caught half way out of a tiny window on the second storey at my mums! Luckily a neighbour knocked on the door to tell us that there was a small child hanging out of the upstairs window!!

enjoy
Sue
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Tanda Teaser, There Be Dragons!

This week's Tanda teaser is to make a card with a magical theme....This week sees the launch of the new Harry Potter film so I thought that this might be a good week for dragons, unicorns, wizards, and all things magical. Today also sees one of my nephew's 4th Birthday so I thought that this would be the perfect card for him! Happy Birthday Ollie by the way!

For my card I've used the large dragon from the Tanda Dragons and Fantasy set 4 and the knight from the Tanda Medieval Knights set 1.




I had the idea for this card back when Wendy set the Z fold card challenge and thought that the large dragon would work really well across two panels of the Z fold card. I made a little template for the ramparts to form the top of the card. The mortar between the stones is sakura pen. The Dragon was stamped in versamark and heat embossed in gold ep before being painted in interference paints. To give the castle the appearance of being a little neglected I stamped some tiny vines (Sir Stamp-a-lot) and heat embossed them with green interference ep. The knight was stamped onto white card with a black ancient page ink pad and a colour wash was then added.

Hope you find time to join in with the teaser....I told you to keep you dragons stoked Zoe!

Enjoy
Sue
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Vintage Pictures

On Sunday the family came over and we and opened up fil's box of photos. It took all afternoon and some of the evening to go through them all. We now have piles of photos all over the place....one pile to go to family in Canada, mil took her pile, one pile for us and one pile to be copied.

In amongst the photos I found two rather lovely photos. I think they are both of the same lady and judging from the fashion and hairstyle I am guessing that they date back to the 1920's. The wedding photo has "Auntie Laura and Uncle Sam" written on the back so I am thinking that they were probably fil's aunt and uncle, but I'm not sure if that's his mum's side or his dad's side. Maybe an interesting little family history project for my youngest daughter over the summer holidays.


Sue
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All Wrapped up!

DD2 is off to a birthday party tonight...so we've been hunting for the perfect pressie! Luckily DD2 worked out what her friend's favorite colour is and so we went through my stock of jewellery to see if there was anything she liked! DD2 found a necklace, ear rings and a key ring in the required shade of green. All I had to do was make a pretty presentation box and wrap them all up. I remembered that I had some lime green card, but when I found it, it was far too flimsy to make a box....On to plan B then....I decided that I would punch flowers out of the green card and use them to decorate a box made out of chocolate brown card..I had a few sheets of that and it was nice heavy weight card, perfect for box making! Result!


I cut two pieces of brown card so that one was slightly smaller than the other and stamped a floral flourish, from Laxmi Design, in a green colourbox chalk diagonally across the bigger piece as this was to become the top. This gave an effect similar to a watermark, but with just a little hint of green. My new stampin' up flower punch then came into its own....it's shape co-ordinated very well with the flower flourish.




I also punched some smaller flowers using another punch...I forget the name...I distressed the edges of the petals with the chalk ink and then put them all together on the box using a little green flower brad.




















I had some chocolate off cuts left over from making the box, so I used them to make the gift tag.....



















Then I thought....what to wrap it all in...I know I've got a bit of lime green raffia lying about somewhere, and some brown paper....DD1 is so into brown paper at the moment for her art and graphics course work so I thought it must be fashionable!..So I took a little brown paper and my Laxmi stamp and made some personalised wrapping paper!








I just hope she likes her pressie!
Sue
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P is for Play

P is for Play, well what would we all like to be doing...I know I'd like to be messing about at the seaside! Many happy days spent with my Dad rock pooling and making dams! So here is my "P" in the alphabet challenge. The P is stamped with sand from "A stamp in the hand" stamped on top of colourbox chalk inks and triple embossed with clear ep. The main image is a stampin' up stamp that has been water coloured with my trusty old (and I mean old) watercolour paints.

Thanks again for the challenge Linda!
Sue
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Dance the Night Away!

Wendy has set the teaser a little early this week, I know where she is coming from as I have a manic day tomorrow as well...so I thought that I would post this now, while I have a quiet moment!

For my card I have kept things simple and elegant. I have used a Hampton Art Stamp for my main image, the heart border is from my baby set by TandaStamps and the sentiment is from Lost Coast Designs. The stamping has all been done in black ink, and the main image has been matted and layered with hammered silver card and black card.

I hope that you will join in with the teaser and look forward to seeing your artwork on the Tanda Blog and/or forum!

Sue
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Fairy ATC for Craft Stamper

I managed to get hold of a copy of craft stamper while I was away enjoying the weather and people watching at the Henley Royal Regatta this weekend. I have to say, I spent a good few hours happily ensconced reading my magazine whilst reclining in the deck chairs in the Stewards enclosure. Lots of lovely articles read so far and a few more to go! Unfortunately my fairy atc didn't get published this month and it isn't on the Craft stamper blog, so I just thought that I would share it with you all here.....

I used Lavinia stamps stamped in versamark and dusted with Pearl-ex. The fairies were stamped onto velum and cut out before being sandwiched between acetate and card with some fairy dust thrown in for good measure. Basically this is a shaker card constuction made to atc proportions. The little mushrooms (bottom left) where anchored between the two layers of foam tape, but the faries were free to "fly" around under the acetate.

O is for Orange!

Zoe I had to laugh when I read your blog tonight! I drew the citrus stamps to use in this alphabet challenge for 'O'! I'm glad that you are enjoying the stamps. My "O is for Orange" atc was made using clear ep to give a resist on watercolour paper. The image was coloured using brusho inks and then the pith was taken out again with bleach. The chipboard O was coloured with colourbox chalk inks and triple embossed. the orange and turquoise seem to work quite well together....I hate to admit it, but the orange line at the bottom of the atc is actually the edge that I cut off my chocolate orange challenge card from last week. Well you know what they say about crafters....we never waste a thing!

Iconic Images

This week, for the Tanda Teaser, I thought I would invite you all to use an image that you think of as being iconic. For my card I chose to use Andy Warhol as my inspiration. My little piece of "pop art" was created using black impress and a stamp from Tanda's Retro Ladies set 2. The faces were then coloured using copic markers.








I think that this second card also qualifies for this challenge as I think that the girl is Marilyn, don't quote me on that though, I could be wrong! The stamp is from a set of stamps that was featured in Craft Stamper a while ago, I think it was called Glamour Girls. I stamped the central image on watercolour paper in black stazon, this was then coloured with watercolours, cut out and coated with diamond glaze. The base image was created by stamping and masking the girl 3 times so that the images overlapped. With the masks still in place I sponged grey colourbox chalk ink on the bottom of the card so that the girls had something to sit on and the top half was coloured with a beige colourbox chalk ink. The border stamps, from Clarity, were stamped in black stazon to give the effect of a film strip, then the edges were stamped with field of sky from Judikins in grey stazone. The central girl was positioned with sticky pads. To finish off the image was matted and layered with hammered silver card onto a pearlized grey card. The ribbon and the bling gave the card the finishing touch.

I hope you enjoy the challenge
Sue
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N is for Net

Another week has gone by and boy, what a week! Well I was a bit stumped for an N, but then I remembered that I had a mesh/net stamp by Aspects of Design and a psx fish stamp, so I decided on N for Net. I stamped the fishes in fawn impress, then coloured them and the background with copic markers, having done this, I masked the fish, stamped the net in versamark and heat embossed with white silver sparkle ep. The N was coloured with a copic marker and then I stamped it with the net stamp and white stazon. This was then triple embossed. Colourbox chalk ink was used to stamp the letters and distress the edges.



I think that we are just about ready for Alan's funeral on Monday. I've just signed off the order of service and now the only things that need to be done are the tribute and writing the card for the flowers and John will have to do them. Alan was a lovely, gentle giant of a man, who would do anything for anyone. Before his stroke, 10 years ago, he was a man of action, racing motorbikes, skiing and rowing. Latterly he had a season ticket for Birmingham City and loved going to watch the football with his granddaughters. These are just some of the things that we will be remembering him for on Monday. RIP Alan.

Sue
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Chocolate Orange

Thank you for your kind wishes Wendy, on the Tanda Blog. We're getting through with lots of hugs at the moment.

I'm so glad that Wendy and I plan these teasers a couple weeks in advance, otherwise I would not have had the chance to take part this week.

This may look very similar to my resist card the other week, it is, I admit it, but I did use a slightly different stamp for the main element and different colours of course! I know, not very inspired, but I have to say I wasn't feeling very inspired last week knowing that fil was so poorly. The stamps were the custom stamps from Andrew and the inks were brusho inks.



I used a grey copic marker to ground the orange with a little shadow. Again, I decided the clear ep gave a juicy effect and therefore decided not to remove it.





Well it's been a really busy day, fil's funeral is on Monday, and there is so much to arrange. Yesterday I ordered the flowers...blue and white, fil was an ardent Birmingham City supporter. The florist's cards were not really appropriate, all floral and generally yellow so I've designed my own, one for bil, one for us and one for the grandchildren to sign......the images are Jolly nation stamped in black Impress and coloured with Copic markers. I think that they will go with the flowers really well and they are far more suited to the kind of person fil was. They would make him smile!

Well got to go and get some shut eye...lots more phone calls to make tomorrow and the vicar to see.

bye for now
Sue
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He made it but only just!

If you read my earlier post, you will know that my fil has been very ill and I was worried that he wouldn't live to see Father's Day. Well he made it, so I made him this card and the girls wrote him a letter to tell him how much they loved him and how they are going to miss him. Later in the evening the carers noticed that he was deteriorating fast and called in the MacMillan nurse. We had a call just before 5am on Monday morning to say that he had just passed away in his sleep. So I just want to say, Alan, if you are up there looking down, thanks for being a great father-in-law, we are all going to miss you.
Sue
xxx

M is for Mini

I think I get two bites of the cherry this week with the alphabet challenge! Firstly the card I made for the Tanda Teaser is a picture of a mini, using one of Linda's new stamps and secondly another atc to go with the set and yes I've used Linda's mini stamp again! For the atc I've had to stamp the mini onto the chipboard letter otherwise it would have been almost invisible. The image was coloured using copic markers.

Sue
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Oh Daddy!

It's father's day on Sunday, so it seemed obvious that this week's Tanda Teaser should be to make a father's day card, or for those of you out there who no longer have their fathers around, a general man card. So far I've made cards for my husband and my dad.....I have the perfect stamp for fil, but it was confirmed yesterday that he is now in end stage renal failure and as I'm not sure if he will still be with us on Sunday, I'm leaving his card till the last possible moment. I feel, making his card now would just be tempting fate.

The card I made for my husband is stamped using Linda Luckin's new car stamps and Tanda man tracks, the retro background is stamped using stampin' up stamps. I coloured the image with copic markers and then painted glossy accents over the mini.




The card I made for my dad is a bit of fun....I stamped the "garden man" from Jolly Nation in fawn impress and then coloured him with copic markers. The stair part of the card was stamped in fawn impress with stones and little dots from Sir Stamp a Lot, a bit of a colour wash was also added using the same ink pad to give the impression of soil. I cut out a square of heavy duty acetate and using more stamps from Sir Stamp a Lot stamped the wisteria, bird, beans and vegetables using stazon. The bean poles were stamped using a straight line stamp from innovative stamp creations. Dad has always been a keen gardener, he studied botany at University and when he retired he volunteered at RHS Whisley. Hopefully he will like this card better than his birthday card, which he complained was ageist, due to the rocking chair!

Enjoy
Sue